(Ecofin Agency) – In November 2019, the DRC announced the creation of a new company in the mining sector, dedicated to the formalization of artisanal cobalt mining. Between institutional blockages and operational challenges, the company has not yet succeeded in imposing its monopoly.
In the Democratic Republic of Congo, the General Cobalt Company (EGC) announced this week the production of 1,000 tonnes of cobalt from artisanal mining and fully traceable, a first for this company created in November 2019. This success confirms the efforts it has been making for several months to exercise the legal monopoly granted to it by the State on the purchase and export of cobalt produced by Congolese artisanal miners.
This first stock of traceable artisanal cobalt comes after almost six years of blockages which had prevented the EGC from entering into operation. The monopoly announced at its creation was challenged on an institutional level and rendered inoperative, due to a lack of operating sites, in particular due to a dispute with Huayou Cobalt at the Kasulo mine. Added to these obstacles were the absence of secure areas to accommodate cooperatives, the inability to buy ore from miners and the inability to impose responsible sourcing standards.
The trajectory has changed since 2024, when Gécamines allocated five mining squares to the EGC. This was accompanied in February by a total suspension of cobalt exports in February 2025. This decision, initially aimed at reducing the global surplus to raise prices, offered the EGC an additional advantage: it became the only entity authorized to export cobalt of artisanal origin in the DRC.
The sector employs between 1.5 and 2 million people in the country, and represents between 15 and 30% of national cobalt production. This share, however, has fallen in recent months due to the fall in prices, and represented only 2% last year, estimates the Cobalt Institute. We will have to see what effects the rise in power of the EGC has on the sector’s production, but also on the quality of life and work of artisanal miners, who struggle to make a decent living from the income from this activity.
Emiliano Tossou
Edited by: Feriol Bewa
Also read: 02/28/2025 – The suspension of cobalt exports to the DRC breathes new life into the EGC
